Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been sacked as Manchester United manager.
Solskjaer's almost three-year reign at Old Trafford came to an end on Sunday morning following United's 4-1 defeat against Watford.
Jadon Sancho, Raphael Varane and Cristiano Ronaldo arrived at the club this summer and United were expected to mount a serious Premier League title challenge, however, Solskjaer's side have failed to convince and performances have been consistently poor.
Solskjaer survived the Liverpool debacle and the Manchester derby humiliation but the Watford defeat was the final blow.
Michael Carrick will now take charge of the team for forthcoming games, while the club looks to appoint an interim manager to the end of the season, but the MEN have looked at five candidates that could replace Solskjaer on a permanent basis.
Zinedine Zidane
This certainly isn't the first time that Zinedine Zidane has been linked with the United job.
Zidane's first job in management was at his former club Real Madrid and he won three Champions Leagues, two La Liga titles, two Spanish Super Cups and two FIFA Club World Cups across his time spent at the helm at the Bernabeu.
The Frenchman inherited a squad of world stars upon his appointment and there are doubts over his tactical credentials, though.
Brendan Rodgers
Brendan Rogers recently admitted that he is '100 per cent' committed to Leicester but the Foxes' results haven't been great.
The exciting British manager also delivered a similar sentiment to the press when managing Celtic before Leicester swooped for his services and it is not beyond the possibility that he could be swayed by the power and resource of the United job.
Rodgers won the FA Cup with Leicester last season and has guided the club to regular European qualification.
Solskjaer was arguably tactically out-thought by Rodgers when United lost 4-2 against Leicester earlier this month.
Erik ten Hag
Ajax are flying in the Eredivisie, but it's their performances in the Champions League that have really made people stand up and take notice once and they sit at the top of their qualification group in the competition with four wins from four games.
Ten Hag has built a reputation as one of Europe's finest managers in recent years and his attacking philosophy would make him an ideal candidate to replace Solskjaer while he also got the best out of Donny van de Beek during his time at the club.
The Dutchman could be an inspired appointment.
Mauricio Pochettino
With the benefit of hindsight, United might not have found themselves in this current predicament if they had bided their time when Solskjaer was just interim manager with the view of appointing Mauricio Pochettino instead at the end of the 2018/19 season.
United are long-term admirers of Pochettino and he's shown he can go toe-to-toe with the best tactically over his career.
Pochettino is currently managing PSG, which means, even if he was open to the job, hefty compensation would be needed.
Graham Potter
Pep Guardiola has claimed that Graham Potter is the best English coach and that glowing verdict is telling.
Potter rose to prominence at Swedish club Ostersunds, where he managed for seven years and delivered great success, before moving to Swansea. Brighton soon took notice of Potter's work and he's managed on the south coast since 2019.
Potter's sides always have a distinct style of play. The 46-year-old gets his team to be comfortable in possession and he places an emphasis on retaining the ball. The United job might come too soon for Potter, but he's certainly one to follow in the future.
